I've just been offered an amazing opportunity to stay in Gildwiller, Alsace with my former French teacher. We'd be staying with good friends of hers in their home. Google has revealed very little about this TINY village, aside from a population of 284 in 2004, but if anyone has anything else to add I'm all ears.

My mission between now and July is to brush up on what high school French I remember, especially as we'll be in a non-"tourist" area. What I'd really like to know is a) what would be a good hostess gift -on this I'll also be contacting my teacher per likes,etc and b) is there anything in particular that I should be on the lookout for to bring back to the states. I've checked the Customs website on what's allowed and what's not, but little known regional specialties are something quite different!